Re: LICENSES [was: Re: Have you seen this?]

[Arnt Gulbrandsen <agulbra@troll.no>]

"Steve Lamb" <morpheus@teleute.ml.org>
>     Sooooo, if Qt were disttributed with the OS then it would fall under the
> special exception?  :)

That's what he says.  That still, however, would not permit
applications distributed with the OS to use Qt.  In other words, if
thar paragraph were the big issue, you could -use- Qt in a GPL'd
program, but in doing so you would refuse all linux distributors the
right to include your program in their distributions.

The key is in an earleir paragraph.

    These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
    identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the
    Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate
    works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not
    apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate
    works.

In my opinion, Qt is not a section of KDE, it is not derived from the
KDE and it must be considered independent and separate from the KDE.
In other words: The KDE's usage of the GPL does not cause the GPL, and
its terms, to apply to Qt.

            But when you distribute the same sections as part of a
    whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of
    the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions
    for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each
    and every part regardless of who wrote it.

Qt is not distributed as part of KDE.  It is distributed as part of
various distributions that also include the KDE, but only by "mere
aggregation [...] on a volume of a storage or distribution medium"
which the GPL okays elsewhere in the text.

--Arnt